Councils to blockade roads

Most of the state's main highways will be blockaded next Friday as rural councils, fearful of forced amalgamations, step up their campaign against the Carr Government.

A meeting of representatives from 50 councils and the main local government union, the United Services Union, in Bathurst yesterday also established a campaign committee to raise funds for advertisements and a possible legal challenge against the Government's reforms.

They believe the proposed council amalgamations will decimate many country towns and villages, causing the loss of jobs, services and political voice.

The campaign's chairman and Mayor of Maclean Shire, Chris Gulaptis, said council workers would block a section of the Pacific Highway next Friday to make city voters more aware of the issue of rural council mergers. "If forced amalgamation goes through it is going to bog down the bush, so we are going to bog down the state."

Despite an election promise that there would be no forced amalgamations, a number of reports commissioned by the Government recommend "boundary adjustments" that would see many of the state's 172 councils merge.

One report recommended that on the North Coast, the Clarence Valley councils of Grafton, Copmanhurst, Pristine Waters and Maclean be merged.

Cr Gulaptis said hundreds of submissions to the government-commissioned inquiry into these councils from Maclean residents opposing amalgamation had been ignored.

"[The State Government] didn't consult us, they insulted us," he said. "They don't have a mandate to do this. They are bloody well liars."

The Opposition's local government spokesman, Andrew Fraser, told the Bathurst meeting that even those councils in favour of amalgamation had become "disenchanted" by a "farcical" review process.

The Labor Member for Bathurst, Gerard Martin, conceded that the process had been "badly handled" and that most people in the council areas under threat in his electorate were opposed to forced amalgamations.

The Government has promised there will be no forced job losses from amalgamations for three years and that small communities will keep their political voice through "precinct committees".

The Local Government Minister, Tony Kelly, has the final say over council boundaries.

In an interview with the Herald last week, he said the aim of the reform process was better services. "The last thing I want to see is total disruption to communities. I want them to have adequate representation and employment."